The Hallowed Silence of Amon Anwar

Upon the eastern spurs of the White Mountains, where the great range bends toward the river Anduin, stands the lonely height of Amon Anwar, the Hill of Awe. It is the most sacred of all the beacons of Gondor, for it was here that the first King of the South-kingdom, Elendil the Tall, laid his father Amandil—or rather, the memorial stone that marked his passing—before the Dúnedain were cast upon the shores of Middle-earth by the ruin of Númenor. In the elder days, the hill was shrouded in a dense and ancient forest, a remnant of the wild woods that once draped the feet of the Ered Nimrais, and it remained a place of profound stillness, untouched by the strife of the lesser ages.

It was Isildur, son of Elendil, who first consecrated this summit as a place of profound significance. When he returned from the war against Sauron, bearing the shards of Narsil and the Scepter of Annúminas, he chose Amon Anwar to be the resting place of his father's memorial. There, in the presence of his nephew Meneldil, Isildur enacted the rites of the Faithful, swearing an oath that the hill should remain a sanctuary, forbidden to the common folk and guarded by the silence of the kings. It was ordained that the tomb of Elendil—though his bones were borne to the high mountain of Meneltarma in the days of old—would be marked here, and the land surrounding it, the province of Anórien, was set aside as the king’s own domain.

For centuries, the Hill of Awe served as the secret heart of the realm. It was the custom of the Kings of Gondor to ascend its slopes in solemn procession to pay homage to the memory of the Exiles. Yet, as the shadow of the Enemy lengthened and the line of the kings grew thin, the sanctity of the hill became a burden of state. When Cirion, the Steward of Gondor, found his realm beset by the menace of the Balchoth and the threat of the Easterlings, he sought a place of counsel far from the eyes of spies. It was to Amon Anwar that he summoned Eorl the Young, the lord of the Éothéod, to forge the Oath of Eorl. Upon that summit, beneath the boughs of the ancient trees, the Steward and the Lord of the Horse-lords bound their peoples in an eternal alliance, ensuring the safety of the north-marches and the birth of the kingdom of Rohan.

Following the pact with the Éothéod, the nature of the hill underwent a final transformation. Cirion, fearing that the tomb of Elendil might be desecrated should the frontier be breached, decreed that the remains of the King be removed to the Houses of the Dead in Minas Tirith. The hill was stripped of its royal relics, and the secret of its sanctity passed into the keeping of the Stewards alone. Thereafter, Amon Anwar was repurposed as the first and most vital of the seven beacons of Gondor, the fire-signal that would summon the aid of the Rohirrim in the hour of direst need. Thus, the mountain that once held the grief of the Dúnedain became the instrument of their salvation, standing as a sentinel of stone and flame until the return of the True King, Elessar, who restored the dignity of the ancient site in the light of the Fourth Age.